


Depths Unfathomed

by Vixenmage



Category: L'Île mystérieuse | The Mysterious Island - Jules Verne, Vingt mille lieues sous les mers | Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea - Jules Verne
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-23
Updated: 2011-12-23
Packaged: 2017-10-27 21:57:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 532
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/300480
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vixenmage/pseuds/Vixenmage
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A brief study on Nemo's last words to Cyrus Harding; what he might be thinking of in his final moments.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Depths Unfathomed

"Of course, sir. Anything you ask."

The dying man - Harding silently cursed, once again, that this moment had come so late - seemed to smile-- such a strange expression, on the face of such news!

"Of Professor Aronnax- he wrote a book, you say, in which he detailed... his journey?" Harding nodded, wondering briefly what the captain had almost said. "Do not think me vain, I beg you, sir."

"I could not, Captain. Please go on."

"What did he have to say of me, in-- in the end?"

"He prayed that you found peace. He-- wished you only well, and deeply regretted leaving you-- leaving the Nautilus, and betraying your trust."

"Brave of him, to publish something like that." A deep sadness was behind his eyes, as he looked again at Cyrus Harding. "He forgave me, then? God alone knows the horrors he-- what I-- for all that I did, and I know what of it was monstrous-- but I would have spared him that. But you say...?"

"He forgave you all that was his to forgive, Captain."

Their benefactor was remarkably composed. He lifted a hand to his brow, and was still for a long moment.

"He forgave me," he said, quietly - to himself, it seemed. Then, more quietly still - the engineer almost wondered if he was aware the words were spoken aloud - "God, what a fool I was, to let him go." Then, seeming to remember himself, he looked back at Cyrus Harding, noticing his questioning eyes. "Yes, I let him go."

Cyrus knew it was unbecoming to press, but he could not help himself. "Why?"

Captain Nemo smiled, then, and closed his eyes. "I suppose it matters not, now. He was a good man - naive, I thought, then, but too loyal to his friends to leave them behind, and after what he had seen in me, I could not bring myself to stop him if he wished to go, in the end."

The engineer felt himself moved to deep sympathy for this man, so very alone in the last minutes of his life. "I do not think I err in saying that he was reluctant to leave for so long out of l-- out of loyalty, for you."

The Captain looked at him directly, almost sternly; Cyrus knew that he understood what was meant by 'loyalty,' the word that was not his to say, here. Captain Nemo shook his head. "I loved him," he said quietly. "That was why I could not bring myself to hold him any longer. I could never have faced his hatred." He looked at Cyrus again. "You have much to do, I think, in a very short time."

It was a clear dismissal, and Cyrus stood quickly, only leaning forward once to clasp Nemo's hand, firmly. "I only wish--"

"No, my good engineer." He smiled, then, once more. "This is enough. And I thank you; to hear that, that he forgave me, was more than I could have hoped for, in my final hours. Farewell, sir."

Cyrus bowed. "Farewell." He turned and left the room, pausing for a long moment before the hatch, that his friends might not see the unshed tears in his eyes.


End file.
